Like this:

Good morning pots. I know they want to be cleaned. I will contemplate them with my Tombow markers. Just a little pen for definition. Thirty minutes. I could have gotten lost in my phone that long. Less phone, more sketching. Onto the pots now.

Instead of words today; lines. Getting the shapes right. Putting the values in first. Then experimenting. Markers. Ink pens and white pens. I have to learn how to keep the details strong in the colored areas so I can see the flowers and still have the values. These Ecoline color markers bleed into each other which is what I wanted, but the Tombows bleed into the Ecolines. The Uni-ball Signo white pen covers well and I can keep layering as each one layer dries.

The glass shaker reminds me of a talented high school friend as I draw it. I think about his gift of drawing and the drawing he gave me of a still life with glass. I have it hanging in my studio. I wonder if he still draws and what happened to him. Albuquerque is a military town and people come and go.

Funny how things get you thinking. In honing my skills, there’s much to think about. Like not letting your talents or creativity go to waste.

These are the things that landed on my kitchen table last night. Less phone, more sketching.

I’ve been unsubscribing from emails. I would like an art thing or a health thing or a spiritual thing or a marketing thing and then the solicitations would arrive ALL DAY LONG! It was akin to being in a batting cage and having baseballs flung at me without having the chance to hit any of them without the next one coming. I have Shiny Object Syndrome in the Age of the Squirrel. The information I subscribed to seemed interesting at the time, but there wasn’t any content.

I just kept deleting things in my inbox without even reading any of it. Ridiculous. I like having all my notifications cleared. It’s like getting to an even number when getting gas. If I go to $20.01, then I have to take it to $20.10. So annoying.

Less information, more life. I love to research and anything I need to know or learn will land in my life exactly when I need it. My word this year is synchronicity. So far it’s working beautifully.

Every morning I disappear into my phone. Where does that get me? How does that advance my skills? I sketched these pretty flowers from my husband. Is it perfect? No. I don’t care. It taps me in to the person I was who drew everyday. I’m working with values here mostly. Getting back to basics. So satisfying. #sketching #valuestudy #gettingbacktobasics #learning #meditative